Cadbury cleared over ad racism claims

The UK advertising watchdog has cleared Cadbury of allegations that its recent Fairtrade Dairy Milk campaign was racist.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) told just-food today (11 November) that there were “no grounds” for even launching an investigation into the claims, which were made last month by African human rights campaigners.

The ASA received complaints that the advert was “demeaning”, racially stereotyped Ghanaians and “exploitative of African culture”.

However, the watchdog decided not to investigate the claims. “The ASA Council did not consider that the ad contained anything that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence,” a spokesman said.

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